Seven locals attend Colorado Teen Literature Conference

Local participants in this year's Colorado Teen Literature Conference on April 6, 2013, look through the children's books on April 8, 2013, at Fort Morgan Library that helped them on the path to loving reading. The seven 13- and 14-year-olds from Fort Morgan and Brush spent time in Denver hearing from popular authors about the writing process and learning about literature. From left are: Nathan Harman, Andrew Stieb, Hope Paul, Angelica Del Campo, Brit Escobedo, Abigail Frederickson and Francisco Estrada. (Jenni Grubbs/Fort Morgan Times)

Local teens attend the wrap-up session back in Fort Morgan April 8, 2013, after the Colorado Teen Literature Conference in Denver on April 6, 2013. They got to enjoy a snack in the Children's Library and talk about what they learned and experienced at the conference. (Jenni Grubbs/Fort Morgan Times)

A group of local teens recently attended the Colorado Teen Literature Conference in Denver, where they got to learn about the writing process and ask questions of a couple of authors of teen literature.

Fort Morgan Children's Librarian Cindy Frye and two other library staffers took the seven teens, six from Fort Morgan and one from Brush, to the annual conference.

"Last year, we took high school kids. This year, it was middle school kids," Frye said.

She said she had contacted a Fort Morgan Middle School teacher in the gifted and talented program and garnered interest among some of those students in attending the conference.

The students used the computer lab at the public library to apply for grants to cover the conference fees and costs.

The teens who attended the Colorado Teen Literature Conference April 6, 2013, in Denver pick out special bookmarks being given to them by Fort Morgan Children's Librarian Cindy Frye, right, on April 8, 2013, at Fort Morgan Public Library.
(Jenni Grubbs/Fort Morgan Times)

"We were told they were few and far between," Frye said, "but fortunately, we were the recipient of grants for everyone to go."

Three of the local students even were chosen to be part of a panel discussion with authors Lauren Oliver and Jay Asher.

Frye said she had all of the local students going to the conference read the one of the authors' books, and then Stieb, Estrada and Harman were the ones selected to represent the Fort Morgan/Brush contingent on the panel.

Advertisement

Estrada said he had asked Oliver if she believed love was a disease, which was a subject broached in one of her books.

"She said love has as many variations as mental illness," Estrada said Oliver replied.

Estrada said he also asked Asher what it was a like to work with a co-author.

"It was really easy," Estrada said he was told, because the two authors' writing styles had been so similar.

Stieb said he asked Asher if he had based his books' locations on real places.

"He said yes, but he had to change the names," Stieb said. "It was funny, though. He changed it just a small amount."

Harman said he asked Asher what the significance had been of having one of his characters use pills to commit suicide.

"He said there was not really anything significant," Harman said. "His research showed it was the most common way for female suicide."

Overall, the teens got insights into the writing process from the authors, as did their fellow conference-goers at the other workshops and seminars at the conference.

And they all seemed to have gotten a lot out of the experience.

"I learned that you have to think not just questions about the books, but how they felt about different events that they do," Estrada said.

But Estrada said that was not the case for Oliver, who "had no problem saying cuss words at all."

Thirteen-year-old Abigail Frederickson of Brush said she found out that Oliver "doesn't really believe in writer's block," which Frederickson found interesting.

Brit Escobedo, 14, said she found out more about the authors' motivations were for writing the stories that they did.

"And there are different techniques and approaches to writing," she said she learned.

Angelica Del Campo, 14, said the conference "was just an overall great experience."

"You take away a lot overall," she said. "It was a really great conference if you were a reader or a writer."

One of the workshops that some of the local teens went to was about building a culture in a science fiction story.

"We got to build an alien race," Paul said.

"We even came up with the history and stuff" about the aliens, Escobedo said.

Another workshop was about how authors create myths to work into their stories.

Estrada said that there was a group discussion where the teens had to "go with the assumption that everything that's been done in life is a myth," and then come up with the myth that explained things.

A seminar about what was new in young adult literature was one that the local teens said was especially interesting.

"We got to see what books are coming out soon," Estrada said.

The local teens also liked that two of the speakers at this seminar were former high school teachers, who "gave us their opinions on the books," Frederickson said.

At the end of this seminar, the presenters raffled off some of the new books, and four people from the Fort Morgan/Brush group received some of the advance reader copies of the new books that had been discussed.

The majority of the local group said they were interested in becoming writers.

"I like to think of writers as artists who can't draw," Frederickson said.

"You can express all your feelings through your characters," Estrada said. "Even the style you write in can express emotions. Whenever I write, I like to mix recreating old myths with modern life."

Del Campo said she likes to write because then she gets to create the story and world.

"When you read, you get transported into this world that the author has created for you," she said. "But when you write, you can make up that world."

Stieb said he agreed with Oliver that "writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia."

"You're making characters up in your mind and talk to them," Stieb said.

Paul said she considered reading and writing to be "an escape."

"But when you write, you make it more personal to who you are," she said.

Only Harman said he was not looking to become an author, but he said he had enjoyed learning about the writing process undertaken to produce some of the books he reads.

Overall, the local teens and apparent budding authors seemed to have enjoyed the conference, much to Frye's delight.

"I've already made plans to go again next year," Paul had said, and Frye's face lit up.